Daydreamer
by Orange Ratchet
Summary: Arnold is going out with his family today for a little family time, but where they're going, Arnold hardly knows. But still, it does give him an excuse to daydream...


All right, here we go with a brand new one-shot, this time, focusing on Arnold and his family! Anyway, enjoy!

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It had been quite a while since Arnold had finally reunited with his parents, and he couldn't be any more happier than he already was. Sure, he had to admit, it wasn't easy getting to that path, but he knew it was the thought that counted, and he could even barely contained his excitement. Of course, his parents were around more often now, so it was pretty exciting to have both his parents around.

Sure, he had to admit, it was a little tough at first to get his mother and father used to the fact that the world changed around them, along with their son. Not to mention the fact that the make-up sessions they did were a little... excessive, but thankfully, that all wore down soon enough. Arnold was a little embarrassed, but he couldn't really complain. At this moment, he was just happy to see them again and to hear the stories about the Green-Eyes and how they met up again.

But this wasn't the moment to think about incidents like that. Today, for Arnold, it was a very important family day for the two as the boy went into daydreaming about what he was going to do with his parents today. He couldn't help but wonder... vacation out on the beaches? Sailing on the lakeside? Sure, he had to admit, he did a lot of those things with his grandparents and occasionally his best friends, but he never had the experience with his actual parents before.

As he was sitting at the table, daydreaming and daydreaming on, both Miles and Stella approached their son with smiles on their faces as Stella tapped the boy on the shoulder. Arnold immediately snapped out of his stupor as he looked up, blushing in embarrassment.

"Uh, sorry." Arnold said nervously, laughing a little. "Was I daydreaming again?"

"Our little boy... the daydreamer." Stella gave a giggle as she hugged her son. Arnold returned the hug quickly as he looked around.

"Ready to go out?" Miles asked as Arnold held a look of excitement.

"I'm ready whenever you guys are." Arnold nodded as he looked over. "Where are we going today?"

Miles and Stella grinned as Stella said, "You'll see when we get there."

Arnold gave a simple nod as he followed his parents over to the car, which Phil had given to them for the day, with his father being careful not to get it dented or anything. After all, the Packard was pretty old. As the car kept driving along, Arnold listened to the old stories of a good adventure Miles and Stella had in their early days, involving helping a spotted leopard out with a broken paw. But half the time, he had daydreamed once again, thinking about being in his parent's shoes, helping said leopard out by wrapping his paw in bandages.

Daydreaming was nothing new to Arnold, in fact, when he wasn't giving advice to his fellow students OR trying to help out teachers in troubling situations, he tended to go off in one of his daydreams, imagining that he's off on some brand new adventure somewhere. He couldn't remember the last time he went into one of those daydreams... then again, with the aspect of growing up and figuring out feelings for everybody, and the fact that he was missing his parents, he couldn't really find a lot of room to daydream.

But now that his parents were back, the daydreams were back on, and they were just about as strong as they were before. Sure, there were still the occasional daydreams he had, like riding around in an easy chair meeting dinosaurs or sailing while playing in a musical band, but there were also other projects he wanted to try in action, like his treehouse project in Mighty Pete (Helga immediately stopped him upon his suggestion of adding a grindrail system to the treehouse, despite his protests) and wanting to explore around the inner machinations of Dinoland.

But, whatever the reason, Arnold was back into his daydreamer mode, and this was something he was a little more comfortable with these days. Sure, he'll occasionally give advice from time to time, but at the moment, being in a great daydream was the only thing that kept him going most of the day. All of a sudden, he felt the car stop as Arnold snapped out of his daydream.

"H-huh?" Arnold blinked as he looked around. "Where are we?"

"Take a look outside, Arnold." Stella smiled as she and Miles were getting out of the car.

Arnold paused as he opened the door and walked out... only for his eyes to widen as he noticed a brand new city, a little different than the one he lives at, was standing before his eyes. Miles then explained, "I know it's probably not what you pictured, but Stella and I were thinking, let's take our son and explore the next town over, we'll have lunch, enjoy a show, and if we have time, a little game of laser tag."

Stella gave a laugh as she crossed her arms in a cool fashion. "I should warn you right now, sweetheart... I'm a deadly player at laser tag."

Arnold looked a little surprised as he looked over at his parents's eager faces, looking just as excited for this day. He paused for a brief moment, before smiling. "That sounds like a fun family day!"

"We knew you'd like it!" Miles smiled as Arnold went between his two family members. "I will admit, it's not fighting tigers or exploring the deep vast jungles of the world, but..."

"Guys, hey!" Arnold laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'm with my mom and dad, and we're having a family day together! In fact, it's our first family day together. Not everything needs to be action packed, you know."

"Are you sure?" Stella asked, raising an eyebrow.

Arnold gave a nod. "Believe me, after the adventure in the jungle, I think a simple relaxing family day is more than enough for me. Besides, we'll have all the time to plan for if or when you get to your next adventure..."

Miles and Stella looked at each other... then smiled as they turned to Arnold, with Stella saying, "You got a point. Tell you what. Next time we go off on some adventure out in the jungles of San Lorenzo, we'll take you with us. It'll be fun!"

Arnold paused as he looked back. "I'll have to get back to you on that. I still have a lot of friends here..."

"We understand." Stella smiled. "Let's not think about that anymore, huh?"

"Yeah! Come on, let's go out there and have ourselves a good time!" Miles grinned as Arnold looked between his mother and father and smiled.

"You're right! Where do we go for lunch?" Arnold asked as the three of them started to go off in this strange new city.

As Miles and Stella discussed lunch plans with Arnold, he couldn't help but feel genuinely satisfied. Sure, he wasn't going out on some epic adventure with his family, but in the back of his mind, he didn't really care. Just being with the family was good enough for him, and this was lost time being made up. Whatever the case may be, Arnold was definitely going to have fun today.

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And with that, this one-shot is done! How did you guys like it? I know this one-shot is pretty short and to the point, but sometimes, one-shots can be like that sometimes. As for what'll happen with Arnold and his family's day out afterwards, well, I'll leave that to your imagination. I'm glad I was able to write this up, hope you all enjoyed it all the same. Anyway, thank you all for reading, and have a very wonderful day!


End file.
